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This episode is supported by Fading Sunlight.

Tonight, by listener request,

we'll read the opening to The Woman in White,

written in 1859 by Wilkie Collins. It's considered to be among the first

mystery novels and an early example of detective fiction. Modern critics and readers regarded as Collins best

novel, although at the time of publication critics were generally hostile.

The novel opens with Walter Hartwright, a young art teacher, who encounters a mysterious

and distressed woman dressed entirely in white, lost in London.

He is later informed by policemen that she has escaped from an asylum.

Let's get cozy.

Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now, take a few deep breaths.

The story begun by Walter Hartwright of Clemens Inn, Teacher of Drawing.

This is a story of what a woman's patience can endure and what a man's resolution can achieve.

If the machinery of the law could be depended on to fathom every case of suspicion and to conduct every process of inquiry,

...